Control system for torpedoes



ufiy 1 6 c. c. WHITTAKER ETAL 9 CONTROL SYSTEM FOR TORPEDOES OriginalFiled Nov. 24, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet l WETNESSES: 6 7 ail filgglzpToRs 0area" are/aw W /M I Fue/ 6. Lib/res.

6M 6 ATTORNEY 3% c. c. WHITTAKER ETAL 2,405,002

CONTROL SYSTEM FOR TORPEDOES Original Filed Nov. 24, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet2 INVENTORS C/mr/es fl'i fiiffaker and fiuef Jbnes.

ATTORNEY Patented July 30, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE CONTRQLSYSTEM FOR TORPEDO-ES Charles C. Whittaker and Ruel C. Jones,Pittsburgh, Pa., assignors to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, EastPittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania 7 Claims. l.

Our invention relates to systems of control and, more particularly, tosystems of control for torpedoes being utilized for exercise runs. Theinvention presented herein is a division of our patent applicationSerial No. 511,581, filed November 24, 1943 and entitled Torpedocontrols.

The present war has brought into use the electrically driven torpedo butin such torpedoes for certain operations gas flasks are till necessaryfor the operation of certain devices. While it is ordinarily notimportant to provide for certain specific operations, as thedisconnection of an electric motor from the propulsion means, on thefinal run, it does becom rather important how the system of control isutilized for a torpedo during exercise runs. Further, since space is ata premium in a torpedo so that a maximum explosive charge may be carriedduring war shots, all of the devices must be relatively small, compactand yet sufficiently inexpensive not to raise the cost of a torpedo toexcessive figures.

One object of our invention is the provision of a system of control foran electrically driven torpedo wherein the source of energy to thepropulsion motor is disconnected a substantially definite time intervalafter a predetermined run of the torpedo has been completed.

A broad object of our invention is the provision of means forfacilitating the recovery of a torpedo at the end of an exercise run.

A more specific object of our invention is the provision of pneumatictime limit means for rapidly effecting the opening of a pneumaticallyoperated electric switch when the pressure for actuating the switchdecreases to a given value.

The objects hereinbefore recited are merely illustrative, because manyother objects and advantages will become apparent from a study of thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic showing of our system of control forfacilitating the propulsion of a torpedo for a given length of time andthe recovery of the torpedo at the end of a run;

Figs. 2 and 3 are showings even more schematic than those in Fig. 1,illustrating modifications of our system of control;

Fig. 4 is a side view of a four-way valve utilized in our system ofcontrol;

Fig. '5 is an end view of the subject matter shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a pneumaticallyoperableswitch; and

Fig. '7 is a longitudinal sectional view of a low pressure relief valve.

Referring to Fig. 1, I designates the torpedo having the exercise head 2attached thereto, 3 designates the after-body of the torpedo in theregion of the starting valve 4. This starting, or trigger, valve 4 isprovided with a trigger arm 5 coacting with the dog 6 on the torpedotube and this valve is designed to be opened at the operation of arm 5when the torpedo is fired. For the operation of the pneumatic devices agas flask I, which may contain anunder relatively high pressure, as 3000to 4000 pounds per square inch, is utilized. This flask is connected tothe trigger valve 4 actuated by the starting trigger 5 and, when opened,supplies air under pressure to the four-Way valve 9 and thence to thepneumatic switch l0 during one stage of operation and for another stageof operation to the fourway valve 9, and then through the tube I I tothe interior of the exercise head 2.

A battery 12 is utilized for supplying the energy to the propulsionmotor l3. This propulsion motor I3 is of the series type having nocommutating poles but is controlled for operation at constant speed bythe governor mechanism M for shifting the brush ring 15 so that constantmotor speed is maintained.

The four-way valve is also designed to be operated by the governormechanism to shift the fourway valve from th connection shown to such aconnection that the flask l is connected to the chamber of the exercisehead and the conduit I6, for supplying the pneumatic switch with gaspressure, is connected to the pressure relief valve H.

A better understanding of some of the details of our invention canprobably be had from a study of a typical sequence of operation duringan exercise run. This operation is as follows: The instant the torpedois fired, the lever arm 5 is actuated by the dog 6 and the valve 4 isopened whereupon gas from the flask l is admitted to the conduits 8 and8. The conduit 8 leads to various devices on the torpedo having noconnection with the invention herein described. The conduit 8 leads tothe four-way valve 9 and, as shown by the broken lines, provides gaspressure to the pneumatically operated switch I 0 which is thereuponoperated with a short time delay to close the contacts l8 to thusestablish a circuit from the battery [2 through the motor field winding[9, the motor armature, conductor 20, and contacts [8 back to thebattery l2. The motor thus, a very short time after the torpedo leavesthe firing gearing operates the stem 2! toward the right shifting thebrushes to maintain the motor at a constant speed. After the run issubstantially completed, the dog 22 on stem 2| actuates the latch lever53 to release the lever arm '61 coupled to the relatively strong sprin25 which is under considerable stress. This spring causes the fourwayvalve to rapidly rotate in a clockwise direction connecting the conduit8 to the conduit ll, thus driving the ballast water from the exercisehead and making the torpedo buoyant so that recovery may be facilitated.

It is important that the switch contacts [8 and other devices may not beinjured by a slow operation of the pneumatic switch 10. The conduit It,therefore, by the operation of the fourway valve G is connected to thelow pressure relief valve ll. This low pressure relief valve I! after asubstantially predetermined interval of time, namely, at a predeterminedpressure in conduit is suddenly dumps the pressure at the time remainingin this conduit I6, thus permitting a rapid opening of the contactmembers l8 of the pneumatic switch H3.

The low pressure relieve valve (referring to Fig. 7) is provided with abase 3% for connection to the pneumatic system and for connection to thecylindrical portion 3| of the valve, This cylindrical portion is dividedin two chambers by a partition 32 provided with the valve seat 33 forreceiving a ball valve 34. This ball is held within a cup-shaped piston35 disposed in the lower chamber of the cylindrical valve construction.The upper chamber is provided with discharge openings 36 and hasinternal threads 31 for receiving the valve adjusting nut 38. This nutonce adjusted may be held in adjusted position by the lock nut 39. Thisnut further has an axial opening for receiving the stem 40 provided withthe rim il at the base and. the projection 42 therebelow, contactingwith the upper surface of the ball valve t l. A spring supporting collar43 rests on the rim il and against the lower or dwnwardly facing regionof the adjusting nut. 38. The downwardly facing region is provided withan annular chamber so that a spring 44 may be supported between thecollar and the base of the chamber in nut 38. This spring is selected tohave a predetermined strength and by means of suitable adjustment of thenut 38 may be caused to press downwardly 0n the ball valve 38 with apredetermined force.

This low pressure relief valve is designed to have a relatively slowleak past the ball valve 34, so that the pressure in the lower chamberonce the pressure of the flasl; is removed is caused to disappearslowly, but when this pressure in the lower chamber has decreased to asufliciently low value, the pressure on the lower portion of the ballvalve becomes less than the pressure of the projection 42 acted upon bythe spring 44. Then the ball valve 3 4 is moved downwardly and the lowerchamber of the relief valve is open directly to the discharge openings36, thus dumping the pressure in the lower chamber.

This lower chamber, as shown in Fig. 1, is connected to the conduit [6supplying pressure to the pneumatically operable switch 10. It is thusapparent that although the pressure in conduit H 4 at the instant thefour-way valve 9 is operated may be 3000 pounds .per square inch, itwill slowly be dissipated by the pressure relief valve I! and once thepressure has dropped to a given low value which may be 350 to 400 poundsper square inch, the pressure for maintaining the pneumatically operableswitch closed is suddeniii are perfectly gastight and that thepneumatically operable switch be also perfectly gastight, then arestricted exhaust port may be provided in the system supplying pressureto the switch. In Fig. 2, we have shown this restricted opening ll atthe four-way valve so thatwhen the four-way valve is operated to theposition to supply the gas to the exercise head, conduit 15 is connectedto the port ll. At such time the conduit supplying pressure to theswitch is connected to the restricted exhaust port in the four-wayvalve, and since, as shown, the low pressure relief-valve isinterconnected with this conduit, it will also function to cause rapidoperation of this switch.

In Fig. 3 we have shown a scheme of control not requiring a four-wayvalve. In this case, the valve 55 is a simple valve for merely openingthe connection of the flask to the exercise head. It will be noted thatin this case the switch remains connected to the flask, but sincesubstantially all of the gas under pressure from the flask is utilizedto expel the ballast water from the exercise head, the pressure willnaturally drop in the pneumatic system and after a given time the lowpressure relief valve will function to rapidly effect the operation ofthe pneumatically operable switch.

The pneumatically operable switch comprises a connection 41 to beconnected to the conduit 6, a cylinder 48 for housing the piston 49.This piston is designed as a valve at the region 50 and coacts with thevalve seat 5| in the region of the mid-portion of the cylinder 48. Thereduced upper end of the piston is rigidly connected to the invertedcup-shaped member 52 having the re-entrant shoulder connection 53. Theupper outer portion of the cylinder is provided with a collar 54 and aspring 55 under compression is disposed between the collar 54 and there-entrant shoulder connection to. thus normally hold the piston in theposition shown.

The piston is provided with a rod having the stop nut 56. On this rod isdisposed a contact member 5'! suitably insulated from the rod by theinsulating sleeve 58. The contact member 5'1 slides freely on the pistonrod and is designed to resiliently engage the contact members l8.

To effect this resilient engagement of the contacts, a spring 59 undercompression is disposed between the lower face of the contact membersand a suitable circumferential outer ledge on the outer portion of thecup-shaped member 52.

The piston is designed to fit somewhat loosely in the cylinder so thatwhen pressure is admitted to the conduit i6, there-is some leakage ofthe gas past the piston and the switch is thus not operated with toomuch impact so. as to injure any portion of the switch. Hrqwever, oncethe piston is forced upwardly, the conical portion 50 engages the valveseat 5|, thus providing a substantiall'y perfect seal against anyleakage of the ga from the switch.

The four-way valve is provided with the neces sary four connections tothe flask, pneumatic switch, exercise head, and relief valve,respectively. This valve has its lever 5i. connected to a link lilwhich, in turn, is connected to another lever 62 which may be extendedso as to form a handle for resetting this valve manually. The four-wayvalve is provided with a tripping latch 63 biased in a clockwisedirection about the pivot pin 64 by the spring 65 disposed between theledge 65 and the right-hand end of the latch member 53. The dog 22 onthe governor mechanism, at the end of the run, is designed to move thelatch member 63 counterclockwise whereupon the dog 6? on the hub of thelever 62 is released. The spring 25 thus causes the levers 5i? and E2 torap-- i'dly move in a counterclockwise direction through an angle ofsubstantially 96 to thus change the connection from that shown in Fig. lto such a connection that conduits 8 and ii are interconnected, andconduit it and the reiief valve are interconnected.

While we have shown but few systems of control and but singleembodiments of the details, we do not wish to be limited to theparticulars shown or described but wish to be limited only by the scopeof the claims hereinafter recited.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a system of control for a torpedo, in combination, a battery, amotor for driving the torpedo, a source of gas under relatively highpressure, an exercise head for the torpedo which is to be filled withgas, as air, at the end of an exercise run to make the torpedo buoyantto facilitate recovery of the torpedo, a governor actuated means formaintaining the speed of the motor substantially constant till thebattery is substantially exhausted, a trigger actuated valve operable toopen when the torpedo is fired to thus connect the source of gaspressure to various devices in the torpedo for effecting variouoperations, a spring biased control valve having a relatively smallleakage port, a pneumatically operable spring biased switch forconnecting the motor to the battery, a minimum pressure valve disposedto be coupled to the pneumatically operable switch, said control valvebeing normally held in a given position to connect the source of gas tothe pneumatically operable switch to thus effect the connection of themotor to the battery an instant after the trigger valve is opened by thefiring of the torpedo, means responsive to a given operation of themotor speed control means for releasing said spring biased control valvewhereby the spring causes rapid operation or the valve to disconnect thepneumatically operable switch and the minimum pressure control valvefrom the source of gas and connect them to the leakage port and connectthe exercise head to the source or gas to make the torpedo buoyant, saidminimum pressure control valve being operable, when the operatingpressure for the pneumatically operable switch decreases to a given lowvalue by reason of the relatively slow leakage of gas through theleakage port, to rapidly exhaust the gas from the pneumatically operableswitch to thus effect a substantially snap-action like disconnection ofthe motor from the battery.

2. In a system of control for a torpedo, in combination, a source of gasunder relatively high pressure; a source of electric energy; an

electric load device; a pneumatic switch for con- 75 said dog uponfiring of the torpedo,

necting said load device to said source of electric energy; a triggervalve, actuated upon firing of the torpedo, for connecting the source ofpressure to said pneumatic switch to cause operation of said switch tothen connect said source of electric energy to said electric loaddevice, means responsive to a predetermined operation of said loaddevice for disconnecting the source of pressure from the pneumaticswitch, and means op erable a predetermined time after the disconnectionof said pneumatic switch from said source of pressure to rapidlydecrease the actuating pressure from said pneumatic switch to thus causerapid opening of said pneumatic switch thereby disconnecting the loaddevice from said source of electric energy. r

.3. In a system of control for a torpedo, in combination, a source ofgas under relatively high pressure; a source of electric energy; anelectric load device; a gas pressure line provided with a regionpermitting a relatively slow leakage of gas from the gas pressure line;a pneumatic switch for connecting said load device to said source ofelectric energy; a trigger valve, actuated upon firing of the torpedo,for connecting the pressure line to the source of pressure to thus causeoperation of said pneumatic switch to connect said load device to saidsource of electric energy; and means operable by a predeterminedoperation of said load device to disconnect said pressure line from saidsource of pressure, whereby said gas leakage causes a decrease inpressure in the pressure line; and means responsive to a predeterminedgas pressure, less than the pressure of said source of pressure, forrapidly dumping the pressure in the pressure line to thus cause rapidoperation of said pneumatic switch to open position.

4. In a system of control for a torpedo which includes electricaldevices and is fired from a torpdo tube, in combination, a source ofelectrical energy; an electric load device; a pneumatic switch forcontrolling the circuit arrangement of said lead device and source ofelectric energy; a source of gas under pressure; conduit means,including means providing a relatively small leakage of gas from theconduit means when containing gas under pressure; a trigger valve; a dogon the torpedo tube for actuating the trigger valve, when the torpedo isfired, to connect the source of gas pressure to the conduit means;switch control means for connecting the pneumatic switch to the conduitmeans to thus cause interconnection of the load device with said sourceof electric energy; means, operable after a predetermined operation ofthe load device, for operating said switch control means to disconnectthe pneumatic switch from the source of gas pressure; and meansresponsive to a given gas pressure in the conduit means for suddenlydumping the gas pressure in the conduit means to thus rapidly operatesaid pneumatic switch to disconnect the load device from the source ofelectrical energy.

5. In a system of control for a torpedo that is fired from a torpedotube, in combination, a source of electric energy; a load devicedisposed to be energized by said source of electric energy, a pneumaticswitch having contacts for connecting the load device to the source ofelectric energy; a source of gas under relatively high pressure; gasconducting conduits having some leakage at one point; a gas flow controlvalve; a dog on the torpedo tube; a trigger valve, actuated by forconnect- 7 ing' certain of said conduits to the source of. as pressure;said gas flow control valverhaving two operative positions, in oneposition the pneumatic switch is connected to the source of gaspressure, and in the second position the pneumatic switch is connectedto the leaky portion of said conduits only, whereby the pneumatic switchis subjected to a decreasing pressure; means responsive to apredetermined operation of the load device for causing the operation ofthe flow control valve from its first position to its second position;and mean operable when the pressure in the pneumatic switch hasdecreased to a given value, because of said leakage,

to suddenly dump the actuating pressure for the pneumatic switch to thuseffect sudden disconnection of the load device from the source ofelectric energy.

6. In a system of control'for a torpedo that is fired from a torpedotube, in combination, a source of electric energy; a load devicedisposed to be energized by said source of electric energy; a pneumaticswitch having contacts for connecting the load device to the source ofelectric energy; said pneumatic switch having a compres sion cylinder towhich gas under pressure may be admitted, a leaky piston in thecylinder, a valve seat in the cylinder, said piston having a seatingsurface for coaction with the valve seatin the cylinder so thatadmission'of gas under high pressure to the cylinder will actuate thepiston with some delay till the valve seating surfaces engage making thecompression cylinder leakproof; a source of gas under relatively highpressure; gas conducting conduits having same leakage at one point; agas flow control valve; a dog on the torpedo tube; a trigger valve,actuated by said dog upon firing of the torpedo, for connecting cetrainof said conduits to the source of gas pressure; said gas flow controlvalve having two operative positions, in one position the pneumaticswitch is connected to the source of gas pressure, and in the secondposition the pneumatic switch is connected only to the leaky portion ofconduits, whereby the pneumatic switch is subjected to a decreasingpressure; means responsiveto a predetermined operation of the loaddevice for causing the operation of the flow control valve from itsfirst position to its second position; and means operable when thepressure in the pneumatic switch has decreased to a given value, becauseof said leakage, to suddenly dump the actuating pressure for thepneumatic switch to thus efiect sudden disconnection of the load devicefrom the source of electric energy.

'7. In a system of control for a torpedo that is fired from a torpedotube, in combination, an electric motor for propelling the torpedo; abattery; a ource of as under relatively high pressure; a pneumaticswitch for connecting the motor to the battery; said pneumatic switchincluding a compression chamber of variable volume that permits fluidleakage only during the movement of the switch from its open position toits closed position, whereby a relatively short time delay in operationis obtained and the speed of operation of the switch is maintainedwithin safe limits with gas pressures of relatively high value; atrigger valve; a dog on the torpedo tube for actuating said triggervalve at the moment of firing of the torpedo to thus connect 'the sourceof gas pressure to the chamber of variable volume of the pneumaticswitch to thus efiect the connection of the propulsion motor to thebattery a short time after operation of the trigger valve; motor speedcontrol means; an exercise head for the torpedo; a gas conduit having aslow leakage; means operable by said speed control means fortransferring the connection of the pneumatic switch from the source ofgas pressure to'the gas conduit having the slow leakage and forconnecting the source of gas pressure to the exercise headrto facilitaterecovery of'the torpedo; and pressure responsive means operable afterthe gas pressure in the gas conduit has decreased to a given valuebecause of leakage to dump the pressure in the gas conduit to tim eiiecta rapid opening of the pneumatic switch.

CHARLES C. WHITTAKER. RUEL C. JONES.

